FILM SCREENINGS REFLECT IMPORTANT ANNIVERSARIES

Thurrock film Festival 2022 | 26th-29th Aug

Thurrock Film Festival 2022 marks the important legacy of anniversaries that have shaped Britain.

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26th Aug

The 25th anniversary of the Handover of Hong Kong is represented by the brilliantly comedy Kung Fu Hustle. This prime example of Hong Kong's successful kung fu exports, is an exciting, slickly choreographed film with unexpected twists and turns. Preceding this is an introduction, with Chinese music instruments, of how the dramatic accents and rhythms of Chinese opera crucially underpin the film, directed by and starring the hugely talented Stephen Chow.

27th Aug

This 75th year of India's Independence, which gave rise to two nations, India and Pakistan, is marked by a beautifully coloured film Around India with a Movie Camera. Drawn exclusively from the BFI National Archive, Around India features some of the earliest surviving film from India as well as gorgeous travelogues, intimate home movies and newsreels from British, French and Indian filmmakers, taking in Maharajas and Viceroys, fakirs and farmhands and personalities such as Sabu and Gandhi

The River directed by Jean Renoir is the other feature, around the coming-of-age of three women, evocatively set in the closing years of the British Empire.

Heritage films of the time, including the fifty years of South Asians and Sikhs seeking refuge in Britain after being forcibly expelled from Uganda, frame a discussion led by Cllr Abbas, Cabinet Minister of Communities and Equalities in Thurrock.

28th Aug

Director Eelyn Lee's father was from Hong Kong, and the double bill of her Estuary films are set in the netherworld of the Thames Estuary, where fragments of memory and fear have been created into film poetry around themes of displacement, migration and change.

BAFTA awarding winning Romanian actor, Anamaria Marinca, who appears in the films, will talk about the films with Eelyn Lee.

Anamaria Marinca will also introduce the Romanian feature Tales from the Golden Age, a funny, poignant and surreal portrait of 1980s Romania. The actor starred in an acclaimed film by one of the directors, Cristian Mungui.

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29th Aug

Two enjoyable family films in Grays Town Park, Raya and the Last Dragon and Abominable, feature an international cast of diverse voice-over actors.

Heritage shorts of Felix Cobson's activities celebrate the first person who brought African culture to Essex. Fifteen years after his death, his legacy is continued by Efua Sey who appears with her Cultural Academy to provide an exciting performance of live drumming and dancing.

Little Sister, What Colour Flower are you Wearing in your Hair was made twenty-nine years ago as an experimental piece inspired by Chinese folksongs and the mountains of Hong Kong. Lead singer, Der-Shin Hwang, performs these magical songs live with the SOAS Chinese Music Ensemble.

Pakistani singer, Nafees Irfan, joins in the live celebrations with his uplifting Qawwali songs.

Website | https://thurrockfilmfestival.uk

Brochure | https://thurrockfilmfestival.uk/wp-content/uploads/TFF2022.pdf

Contact I Hi Ching | hi.ching@thurrock filmfestival.uk | Mob 0784 6614691